Padding?

Son of Witz · 30 Nov 2010, 20:01 · from 2010-November.txt.gz

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From: Sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org (Son of Witz)
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:01:42 -0800
Subject: (urth) Padding?
In-Reply-To: <734805.96684.qm at web37605.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
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	<148D85D1-7B55-4770-A93F-ECC4C6A05EAF at butcherbaker.org>
	<734805.96684.qm at web37605.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <5EDFE3F6-9D04-4430-BF09-15EE4A0EF3A2 at butcherbaker.org>

I think all that is very apt, Brewer.
And as I wrestle with each sentance of this book, I ultimately find the stories rewarding.
Just last friday night, I came home from work to an empty house, my family out of town becaude they had the day off when I didn't. Suddenly Halvard's story, which I previously had no use for, became very relevant. What a monster I would be without my family to keep me on the path.  
As Ava says:
"Like the man your friend talked about, most men think they make their homes for their families, but the fact is that they make both homes and families for themselves.?

~witz


On Nov 30, 2010, at 10:02 AM, Craig Brewer <cnbrewer at yahoo.com> wrote:

> It seems like there are different ways to take it.
> 
> When I first read it, I thought, "And here's Wolfe deciding to be 'literary.' 
> Let's stop the 'quest-adventure' and do some thematic ruminating!"
> 
> After I got more interested in the world of Urth, it seemed like perfectly 
> appropriate "world building" stuff. It was almost generically appropriate.
> 
> Then, even later, when I was interested in the cultural/religious aspects of 
> Urth, it seemed like a series of interesting philosophical digressions.
> 
> Looking back now, it was probably Wolfe doing some of all of that. It seems 
> perfectly appropriate that the original STORY could have done without it. And my 
> bet is that when Wolfe was originally writing the thing, he was thinking 
> primarily as a professional genre writer would: I have my story, and now I have 
> to add to it because my editor/publisher wants more. I don't want to screw up 
> the plot I've laid out, so how can I add to this appropriately in a way that 
> won't require all kinds of plot-level restructuring?
> 
> So it probably was padding, in terms of word count. But a good writer will still 
> make padding add to the overall work, which I think this does. It certainly 
> interrupts the "forward movement" of the story (and maybe we can fault it for 
> that...Wolfe even seems to, and I can understand how the "storyteller" in him 
> might be a bit irritated with those passages), but it still contributes to Urth. 
> I wouldn't want to do without it, myself, just as I wouldn't want to do without 
> any of the other Brown Book stories (and still want more!).
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Son of Witz <Sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org>
> To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
> Sent: Tue, November 30, 2010 11:31:54 AM
> Subject: Re: (urth) Padding?
> 
> Wait, Isn't the storytelling contest in the fourth book, in the Lazaret?
> I feel that stuff is obliquely relevant, but mostly padding. I can barely stand 
> that contest in the Lazaret.
> 
> ~Mike
> 
> On Nov 30, 2010, at 3:16 AM, Mo Holkar <lists at ukg.co.uk> wrote:
> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> One of Wolfe's comments in the Cooney interview, linked here recently, caught 
>> my eye. Re BotNS:
>> 
>> "If you look in the third book, you will find a storytelling contest that?s 
>> strictly padding. That contest got me a really good review in Playboy Magazine ? 
>> and I?ve always been grateful to it for that reason."
>> 
>> I have always seen the storytelling contest as narratively and thematically 
>> important. We step back from the main action, and get a succession of insights 
>> into the metaphysics of the characters' world. We then read on with somewhat 
>> renewed eyes.
>> 
>> I guess we can continue to believe that Wolfe is being a little disingenuous 
>> when he says it's "strictly" padding. But it is slightly sobering to reflect 
>> that if BotNS had remained a trilogy, it wouldn't have been included.
>> 
>> Although perhaps you may feel that this is post hoc reasoning, and really it is 
>> indeed padding that we could have done happily without?
>> 
>> best wishes,
>> 
>> Mo
>> 
>> 
>> # ~ # ~ #
>> 
>> WolfeWiki -- a wiki about Gene Wolfe
>> http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/ 
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